Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/466

This page needs to be proofread.

458


NOTES AND QUERIES.


[9 th S. XI. JUNE 6, 1903.


and the Educatorio delli [sic] di Foligno in Florence ; and to the Asili Infantili di Carita, Istituto Vittorio Emmanuele per i Fanciulle Cieche and the Societa Tomasco per i Ciechi 5,000 lire each ; and for distribution among persons in his service 135,000 lire. After making other bequests the testator left the residue of his real and personal estate in Italy, France, and England in trust for his grand-nephew Lord Westbury. By his will made in 1886 the late Mr. Temple Leader desired to be buried simply as a Protestant, but by a codicil he stated that he had adopted the Catholic faith, and he desired to be buried simply as a Roman Catholic."

It will probably be a subject of regret to those of his friends who are still with us that he, in his declining years, gave up the faith in which he had been reared ; but the codicil added to his will must for ever set at rest a question which sooner or later would almost be bound to crop up, and perhaps be as difficult to decide as was the one as to whether he still lived or not. However, Englishmen will rejoice that the beautiful city of Florence, where he resided so long, will benefit by his munificence.

W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY.

[Note also on the same subject by BRIDGWATER. We must not be held responsible for the above Italian.]

FRANK KENNEDY (9 th S. xi. 407). This is the name of the exciseman in Scott's * Guy Mannering,' ch. ix., &c. I. L.

[Very many replies acknowledged.]

MAN OF WOOD AND LEATHER (9 th S. xi. 369). The story of the Nurembergers re- minds me that I once heard the late E. A. Freeman say that for a long time he supposed that a gendarme was fashioned out of wood, and "made to go " by means of "something in his inside," but that he chanced to see one playing with a child, and then he thought that in some cases they " might be human "

J. T. F.

EDWARD ARCHER, M.D. (9 th S. xi. 327). See ' Diet. Nat. Biog.,' vol. ii. p. 69.

A. K. BAYLEY.


NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Visitation of England and Wales.* Edited by Frede- rick Arthur Crisp. Vol. X. (Privately printed.) IT is hardly possible to exaggerate the value of a work like the present, for it appeals not only to the antiquary, the historian, and the man of letters, but also to the lawyer, and therefore, indirectly, to many of the general public who have to call in professional aid. Visitations taken by the heralds came to an end more than two hundred years ago, and, except in the case of peers and baronets, left little to supply their place. There have been a few


cases where some one has been careful to preserve the details of family history, but they are very few. It is, indeed, sometimes impossible to supply the place of facts which were known to every one in the days of our grandfathers. We know an instance of a very old family whose representative filled highly important posts in the reign of William IV., and yet, though much labour was spent on the matter, it was found impossible to discover the maiden name of his great-grandmother, although there was abundant evidence to prove that there had been no misalliance or anything else whatever concerning the deceased lady which her descendants might have wished to conceal. The difficulty of proving eighteenth and earlier nineteenth century pedigrees may seem to a few obscurantists of little consequence, but we nowadays seldom meet with such men, and as for the rest of us, we know that in these days, when more than ever before we are all becoming wanderers, the nearest relations scattered around the globe, it is important for business purposes, as well as for sentimental reasons, that authentic records should be kept and preserved in an intelligible form. Here we have this done for us in a way which includes all the most exacting could desire. The old heralds rarely entered into details as to any but those who continued the line, and it not infrequently happens that the daughters, and sometimes the younger sons also, are omitted altogether ; and even in printed pedigrees of modern times we have known second marriages of widows ignored, either from carelessness or some less rea- sonable motive. We have carefully gone through all the pedigrees in the volume before us, some of which are well known to us, and, with the exception of one or two trivial misprints, have encountered no errors whatever. As the object of the work is to put on record facts which are comparatively modern, the relative antiquity of the various fami- lies is not indicated. The early descents, if required, must be sought for elsewhere. The arms are, how- ever, given, whether they are known to be recorded by the heralds or not. They are sometimes, indeed, carefully engraved. Facsimiles, too, of autographs are sometimes supplied, and there are copies of several family portraits. The index also is of the most thorough kind.

The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church: their Canons and Dogmatic Decrees. Edited by Henry R. Percival, D.D. (Oxford, Parker.)

IT is impossible for us to notice this learned work as it deserves, for it in a great degree relates to subjects which are outside our range. We cannot, however, quite pass it over in silence, for our readers, especially those interested in folk-lore, ought to have their attention directed to the fact that the early Church, like its mediaeval successor, extended its care far beyond the limits of what we now understand by theology. It endeavoured to embrace, and in a great degree to control, the whole range of human activity. Many of the things which were thought of the utmost gravity in the days of the early councils are now left to the common sense of mankind, others to regulation by the police. The folk-lorist, if he uses the index carefully, will be able to turn to much which will throw a certain light on many things far beyond the limits of the Eastern Church. The grossest superstition was everywhere prevalent in the early Christian cen- turies, and the members of the councils do not